The hearing started with prosecutors calling Carruthers to the stand. Dalton started rambling at Carruthers from the defense table.
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Dalton was in court on Friday for a preliminary hearing before Kalamazoo County District Judge Christopher Haenicke, who was to hear testimony from witnesses and decide whether there is enough evidence to try the defendant on the charges. Carruthers came back to the stand and identified Dalton through the video, saying, “I can never forget his face”.
Dalton is charged with shooting eight people and killing six of them within five hours on February 20, in between driving customers for the Uber vehicle service in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Larry is our main news editor.
Police have quoted Dalton as saying a “devil figure” on Uber’s app was controlling him the night of the shootings.
“These old people they have these old black bags”. She testified that she was waiting in a auto while her boyfriend Tyler Smith and his father looked at a vehicle at a dealership, when she saw Dalton walk up to the Smiths and shoot them.
As Carruthers began testifying in a wavering voice, Dalton suddenly tried to rise from his seat and erupted into near-gibberish.
Carruthers, who was the first person shot, had the courage to speak at Dalton’s hearing. Dalton, 45, has been found competent to understand the charges and assist his lawyer.
First, Carruthers was shot in a Kalamazoo parking lot.
“We don’t care about him so long as he is locked up for the rest of his life”, said Vickie and Gene Kopf, parents of 14-year-old survivor Abigail Kopf, who was seriously wounded.
“The lady and the man told me that they had the children and that they were okay ’cause I wouldn’t even respond if they were okay until I knew if that the kids were okay”, Carruthers said in court, in between sobs. Dalton was restrained by deputies and taken from the room. Jeff Crump, a Michigan State Police firearms expert, linked casings at the shooting scenes to guns owned by Dalton.
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Dalton had been out working for Uber on the night the attack took place.
